Show Notes
Many of us see the ocean as an immense blue desert; something to be crossed to see loved ones. It covers nearly 140 million square miles of our planet and can seem to many like an unfathomable, stormy tempest. A single drop seems completely insignificant. Perhaps it's for that reason - it's vastness - that we also cast our rubbish into the ocean. But seeing it only in terms of its size, as a place of stormy chaos, or just a dumping ground, is reductive. It dismisses the ocean rather than engages with it. Things are changing. As one mile of the ocean is cleaned at a time - one drop, if you will - marine life explodes back into being. What was previously lost, is once again found. What if this fearful, stormy sea is actually something to be nurtured, not just traversed? Seen as a reminder of all that is sacred about life, where even one simple drop can be so life-giving? The scriptures point to the ocean as the ultimate display of God's power, creativity - and love. Maybe it's time we re-imagined the Ocean, and allowed ourselves to see in it the reflection of the Creator. "How many are your works, Lord! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. There is the sea, vast and spacious, teeming with creatures beyond number— living things both large and small There the ships go to and fro, and Leviathan, which you formed to frolic there." Psalm 104: 24-26
More from Small Wonders
A trip to Western Australia brought Laurel to the famous Busselton Jetty - a 1.8 km timber-piled jetty stretching out into the Indian Ocean - the longest of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere. Initially built for practicality, the jetty is now a tourist destination and even features on postcards. The way it reaches out with such purpose is similar to prayer - an extension towards the eternal. But the main difference, of course, is the fact that we didn’t build the jetty between us and God. He did. But we still get to enjoy it. We can walk its length at any given moment and commune with Him.
In Romans 12, the Apostle Paul has a challenge for Christians: “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is- His good, pleasing, and perfect will.”
Along York Lane in the Sydney CBD are alcoves and recessed doorways set into the buildings. It was in one of these recessed doorways where a man named Karl used to live (or rather, sleep). Hundreds of people passed Karl every day - and sadly, in 2013, Karl died in his sleep, exposed on York Lane. However, in a remarkable postscript, his long-lost brother, who had been searching for Karl for decades, finally found him. And he brought him home. "My son," the father said, "you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found." - Gospel of Luke, Chapter 15
The gap between what an Ibis is made for and what it does in the city becomes very apparent once you see it in its natural habitat. The Ibis is made to roam marshlands and use their elegant bills to dig for crayfish and mussels - not for scraps of rubbish in bins. But like these birds, we also often lose sight of the type of world we are made for and how we are meant to be. We can’t find the answer to who we are meant to be by looking within ourselves, but we can find it in God. ‘Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love’ the Psalmist writes in Psalm 51. ‘Cleanse me with hyssop, and I shall be clean … create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.’
No matter how well things may seem, everyone faces times of testing where every day can feel like wading through thick sludge. But these challenges can also sometimes be, like molasses, unexpectedly sweet.